Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry (20 January 1902-1 November 1920) was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer during the Irish War of Independence and an Irish national hero. Barry was captured and tortured by the British Army, but he refused to give up the names of his comrades, and he was executed at the age of eighteen; he was the first Irish republican to be executed since the 1916 Easter Rising.

Biography
Kevin Barry was born on 20 January 1902 in Dublin, United Kingdom (now the capital of Ireland), a member of an Irish Catholic family. Barry studied at Belvedere College and became one of the best players on the school hurling club. Barry joined the Irish Republican Army in 1917 while still a student, and he fought for Irish independence when the time came. He took part in an ambush of British Army personnel that left three Blacks and Tans dead, and Barry was arrested for his role in the ambush. The British soldiers tortured him for weeks, but he refused to give up the names of his comrades. Barry was sentenced to death for his role in the murder of three British soldiers, and he was hanged on 1 November 1920 at the young age of eighteen. The ballad "Kevin Brady" is now a popular Irish republican song.